My generation put in a lot more hours playing football after school than kids today. These days, all the football these kids play, they play at their clubs, so the clubs need to work seriously on the basic skills.
Interpretation
Johan Cruyff reflects on the differences in how football is experienced by children today compared to his generation.
In this quote, Johan Cruyff emphasizes the shift in football culture from informal play among peers to structured play in clubs. He suggests that the lack of spontaneous, grassroots playing time may lead to less development of essential skills in young players, highlighting the importance of basic skill training in a more organized setting.
In practice
During a coaching seminar discussing youth development in football.
Ajax is a multicultural club, and we have found that many talented immigrant players quit when they reach puberty. So we wanted to tackle this problem with someone from the same background who had come through it. And that was Edgar Davids. During one of our fights, I pointed that out to him. But it had nothing to do with his skin colour.
It's disappointing to see how football, the world's No. 1 sport, is not No. 1 when it comes to development. It seems to me that a wealth of practical football knowledge is being squandered.
Football is not about suffering. It's about enjoyment. Control the ball, be friendly with it, try to attack, try to score goals. Of course defending is part of it, but you can defend in a lot of ways.
If you look at other countries, you see they have different values: defend more, pass the ball out more, winning is holy. In England, you could say that sport itself is holy. They say, 'Look, guys, it's about more than just winning.'
If you take golf, you have a teacher for the drive, a teacher for the approach play, and a teacher for the putt. That's three specialist coaches for one player. In football, one coach looks after 25 players.
The most important part are the fans, that people going home are happy. It's their time off, and you should give them something to enjoy.
Once, players came to football expecting to be wealthy when they retired. Now, they expect to be wealthy before they've played their first game!
In England, footballers are respected more, the game is more noble, there's less cheating. Every Spaniard who goes loves it - and comes back a better player. If I had ever left, it would have been to England.
Playing tennis, I didn't tie in my self-worth into winning or losing matches.
The AAU doesn't care about the athletes; why should I care about them?
Playing football and presenting TV are totally different things, but there are similarities: it's exciting, it can go well, it can go badly... the difference is when presenting goes badly, it doesn't really affect anyone's life, whereas when you have a bad day on the pitch, it affects people's moods for a whole week.
When you go out on a football field, you are responsible for taking care of yourself. The more rules you get, the less players truly take care of themselves.
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